The Seven Last Words of Christ, Arrangement for String Quartet Hob. XX/1B

At the end of the 18th century, the town of Cádiz in southern Spain provided the backdrop for a Passion to mark Christ’s hour of death; its focal point was the reading and interpretation of Christ’s last words. Haydn was commissioned to write short meditative music to be played alternately with the readings. Haydn composed a work for orchestra. Due to its success, the publisher commissioned Haydn to make an arrangement for string quartet. As the wind instruments double the strings for the most part, only a few changes had to be made to the string parts. We present the arrangement for string quartet based on the musical text of the Haydn Complete Edition (in preparation).﻿

I have now received the parts for the string quartet version of The Seven Last Words, whose score I approved in our last issue. If I still played the viola, I’d certainly be happy reading from them. The avoidance of a page-turn before the attacca subito il terremoto is commendable.[Early Music Review, 2009]